Thursday, December 3, 2015

Review of Crystal Spring Resort Grand Cascades Lodge

If you have been following me on Instagram or Twitter you know that my family and I were invited to spend a few days at Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg, New Jersey. Crystal Springs in about 2 1/2 hours from the Philadelphia Area, located in the Mountains in New Jersey and 1 hour away from NYC.

Resort

We stayed at the Grand Cascades Lodge which is a beautiful and well appointed AAA 4-Diamond hotel. Minerals Hotel and Mourtain Creek Resort are also part of the Crystal Springs Resort. The views of the Kittatinny Mountain Range were breathtaking. I loved the high ceilings and natural light in our room, with a husband who is tall this was a plus making our family comfortable. We stayed in a room with 2 double beds and we had plenty of room for the 4 of us.

Our Room

The main attraction for families at the hotel is the Biosphere, which is an indoor pool complex with an aquarium, vortex pools and caves, and lush tropical foliage; year-round outdoor heated pool; 140-foot waterslide, My kids loved the outdoor heated pool, nothing like swimming outside when the air temp is 30 degrees.

Biosphere

I had the chance to sneak away for some me time at the Reflections Spa. The spa was ranked #19 in Spas of America’s Top 100 Spas. I can see why it was ranked so high. This was a truly relaxing place to unwind. One of my favorite parts was the post-treatment sensorial room for relaxation.

Dinning

There are multiple restaurants at the resort. While we were there not all of them were open. I liked that we could call down to the lobby and a bus would drive us over to the Minerals Resort to have dinner at Kites. We went there for pasta night and had a wonderful meal! If you wanted to stay at the Grand Cascades there is the Crystal Tavern which offers American cuisine with plenty of options for the whole family from sandwiches to rib eye. I also loved that the ingredients are provided by local growers.

What to do in the area:

View from High Point State park

If you love golf then this is the resort for you, there are 6 golf courses in the area to choose from. There are many wineries in the area the offer tours. Also there is plenty of hiking in the area. The two places we went to for easy hikes were the High Point State Park, I recommend checking this out for some breathtaking views and incredible pictures. We also went to the Pochuck Boardwalk on the Appalachian trail.

Pochuck Boardwalk

We also visited Warwick New York. This adorable town was a 20 minute ride from the resort. This cute town has shops and restaurants for you to explore. Many people recommended Fetch for us to grab a bite to eat and this restaurant didn't disappoint.

Other options for activities are fishing, horseback riding, skiing, mountain biking and much more.

In conclusion Crystal Springs has something for everyone in you family. This is a year round resort with plenty of activities or relaxation if that's what you need. The resort has plenty of things to do for families, but it's also good for a romantic getaway, or a girls/guys weekend.